Mardika Parama, Jakarta – Looking toward post-coronavirus economic recovery, the government is to offer six toll road projects with a combined value of Rp 80.5 trillion (US$5.3 billion) to investors this year, officials have said.
The projects consist of five private toll road projects and an Rp 8.7 trillion government project for highway bridges connecting Batam Island with the nearby islands of Tanjung Sauh, Buau and Bintan in Riau Islands province.
The Public Works and Housing Ministry is offering the investment projects as a public private partnership (PPP), according to public works minister Basuki Hadimulyono.
"All projects have great economic and financial value such as the Patimban toll road access, which I think will be highly profitable because Patimban will have a container port for exporting vehicles," Basuki said on Thursday during the online market sounding for the projects.
Basuki was referring to the Japan-funded deep sea port in Patimban, West Java, one of the government's national strategic projects. The Patimban Deep Sea Port is to be Indonesia's export hub.
The documents for the six new infrastructure projects are being finalized for auctioning in the third and fourth quarters of 2020, according to the ministry.
One of the private projects – or unsolicited proposals (USPs) – is the 32.4-kilometer Semanan-Balaraja toll road connecting Jakarta and Tangerang, which needs an estimated Rp 15.5 trillion in investment.
Other projects include the Cikunir-Ulujami elevated toll road valued at Rp 21.5 trillion, to be constructed above the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR), and the 61.5 km South Sentul-West Karawang toll road project valued at Rp15.3 trillion.
In Central Java, private companies will be invited to bid on the Rp 11.7 trillion Patimban toll road access project and the Rp 8.7 trillion Semarang Port toll road project to connect the provincial capital with the seaport.
Basuki said that the ministry was pushing forward with its infrastructure projects so that the government would be better prepared for the post-pandemic economic rebound.
"We want to start the preparations now so we can go to work immediately after the pandemic is over," he said.
PPP and financial engineering deputy director Novie Andriani of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) said on the same occasion that the projects were part of the government's plan to build 2,000 km of toll roads under the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN).
"These projects will support our toll road infrastructure as stipulated in the RPJMN," she said.
Toll roads are among the 41 priority projects in the 2020-2024 RPJMN, and have a combined estimated value of Rp 7.4 quadrillion.
The 2020-2024 RPJMN is expected to help transform the economy toward President Joko Widodo's goal for Indonesia to become one of the top five economies in the world by 2045 and achieve a poverty rate of almost zero percent.